How To Build Enterprise Apps With Consumer-Grade UX?

As an app user, what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about enterprise application? Perhaps something that has a cluttered user interface (UI) and comes in the way of your productivity? Well, enterprise applications in the conventional era were designed to meet the scalable, complex and mission-critical needs of a business. But they failed to provide simplicity, clarity, and ease of use to its users. As a result, businesses continued to rely on spreadsheets to quantify and take purchase decisions faster.

However, the users have now come to expect consumer-grade user experience (UX) from enterprise applications. They prefer an application with an inviting and uncomplicated introductory experience over the one that requires you to attend extensive training or read manuals before getting started. So, here are some essential characteristics that you must consider to deliver a seamless consumer grade user experience through your enterprise application:

Simplicity:

This is essential for a consumer-grade user experience. Simplicity is necessary for designs that can be easily understood and are generally easy to use. It can strike a balance between what is functional and what the users understand. No matter how appealing a design is, it is rendered useless if the users fail to understand easily. You must avoid unnecessarily complicating your user interface. Ensure it clearly presents the aggregated information and actions essential for a given task along with easy navigation. It should create a great impact on the user and make it easier for them to understand the application and find the relevant information from troves of data quickly.

Appealing Aesthetics:

An appealing visual design provides value in the following ways:

It increases user’s expectation for application’s ease of use

It aids in brand recognition of your application or communicating brand essence

It provides consistency in design language

It contributes to users’ first impression and engagement of an application

Choosing right colors, icons, images, shapes, and typography for your application can collectively contribute towards enhancing usability and user experience. Users find it easier to interact with an application having a clean, simple design.

Responsiveness:

Going responsive is necessary to meet the ever-changing needs of your app users. The app should be easy to navigate regardless of the screen type through which it’s being accessed. This will help your users get familiar with your app quickly on mobile devices and in desktop browsers. Responsive apps are composed of responsive layouts, patterns, and components which automatically operate on any given device and screen. However, consumer grade apps do not rely on zooming and panning for navigation and readability.

Accessibility:

All application users, including those with disabilities, should be able to easily access the application and have a pleasing user experience. By following the established accessibility standards/principles you can enable users to use assistive technologies such as screen readers. You may look for .NET developer for hire if you’re planning to create an accessible enterprise application. Microsoft ASP.NET is often the preferred platform as it offers accessibility support with adherence to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards.

Apart from the above-mentioned application UX characteristics, there are various other factors that play an important role in providing a consumer-grade user experience. This can include out of the box features and functionalities, physical deployment, registration, installation, security, upgrades, and consistent support.

If you know of any other characteristics that can help to deliver consumer-grade user experience through your enterprise app, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

As an app user, what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about enterprise application? Perhaps something that has a cluttered user interface (UI) and comes in the way of your productivity? Well, enterprise applications in the conventional era were designed to meet the scalable, complex and mission-critical needs of a business. But they failed to provide simplicity, clarity, and ease of use to its users. As a result, businesses continued to rely on spreadsheets to quantify and take purchase decisions faster.

However, the users have now come to expect consumer-grade user experience (UX) from enterprise applications. They prefer an application with an inviting and uncomplicated introductory experience over the one that requires you to attend extensive training or read manuals before getting started. So, here are some essential characteristics that you must consider to deliver a seamless consumer grade user experience through your enterprise application:

Simplicity:

This is essential for a consumer-grade user experience. Simplicity is necessary for designs that can be easily understood and are generally easy to use. It can strike a balance between what is functional and what the users understand. No matter how appealing a design is, it is rendered useless if the users fail to understand easily. You must avoid unnecessarily complicating your user interface. Ensure it clearly presents the aggregated information and actions essential for a given task along with easy navigation. It should create a great impact on the user and make it easier for them to understand the application and find the relevant information from troves of data quickly.

Appealing Aesthetics:

An appealing visual design provides value in the following ways:

It increases user’s expectation for application’s ease of use

It aids in brand recognition of your application or communicating brand essence

It provides consistency in design language

It contributes to users’ first impression and engagement of an application

Choosing right colors, icons, images, shapes, and typography for your application can collectively contribute towards enhancing usability and user experience. Users find it easier to interact with an application having a clean, simple design.

Responsiveness:

Going responsive is necessary to meet the ever-changing needs of your app users. The app should be easy to navigate regardless of the screen type through which it’s being accessed. This will help your users get familiar with your app quickly on mobile devices and in desktop browsers. Responsive apps are composed of responsive layouts, patterns, and components which automatically operate on any given device and screen. However, consumer grade apps do not rely on zooming and panning for navigation and readability.

Accessibility:

All application users, including those with disabilities, should be able to easily access the application and have a pleasing user experience. By following the established accessibility standards/principles you can enable users to use assistive technologies such as screen readers. You may look for .NET developer for hire if you’re planning to create an accessible enterprise application. Microsoft ASP.NET is often the preferred platform as it offers accessibility support with adherence to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards.

Apart from the above-mentioned application UX characteristics, there are various other factors that play an important role in providing a consumer-grade user experience. This can include out of the box features and functionalities, physical deployment, registration, installation, security, upgrades, and consistent support.

If you know of any other characteristics that can help to deliver consumer-grade user experience through your enterprise app, feel free to let us know in the comments below.